The success of the Erie Canal through central New York in the United States in the 1820s, and the collapse of the Spanish Empire in Latin America resulted in growing American interest in building an inter-oceanic canal. Numerous canals were built in other countries in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Generally inhospitable conditions thwarted the effort, and it was abandoned in April 1700. The ill-fated Darien scheme was launched by the Kingdom of Scotland in 1698 to set up an overland trade route. Given the strategic location of Panama, and the potential of its narrow isthmus separating two great oceans, other trade links in the area were attempted over the years. During an expedition from 1788 to 1793, Alessandro Malaspina outlined plans for construction of a canal. He said that this would be a less treacherous route for ships than going around the southern tip of South America, and that tropical ocean currents would naturally widen the canal after construction. In 1788, American Thomas Jefferson, then Minister to France, suggested that the Spanish should build the canal, since they controlled the colonies where it would be built. In 1668, the English physician and philosopher Sir Thomas Browne speculated in his encyclopedic work, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, that "some Isthmus have been eaten through by the Sea, and others cut by the spade: And if the policy would permit, that of Panama in America were most worthy the attempt: it being but few miles over, and would open a shorter cut unto the East Indies and China". The Spanish were seeking to gain a military advantage over the Portuguese. The earliest record regarding a canal across the Isthmus of Panama was in 1534, when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, ordered a survey for a route through the Americas in order to ease the voyage for ships traveling between Spain and Peru. Satellite image showing the location of the Panama Canal: dense jungles are visible in green, topped by clouds. The American Society of Civil Engineers has ranked the Panama Canal one of the seven wonders of the modern world. In 2017 it took ships an average of 11.38 hours to pass between the canal's two locks. By 2012, more than 815,000 vessels had passed through the canal. Īnnual traffic has risen from about 1,000 ships in 1914, when the canal opened, to 14,702 vessels in 2008, for a total of 333.7 million Panama Canal/Universal Measurement System (PC/UMS) tons. The new locks allow transit of larger, New Panamax ships. The expanded waterway began commercial operation on June 26, 2016. A third, wider lane of locks was constructed between September 2007 and May 2016. The original locks are 33.5 meters (110 ft) wide. It is now managed and operated by the government-owned Panama Canal Authority.Ĭanal locks at each end lift ships up to Gatun Lake, an artificial lake 26 meters (85 ft) above sea level, created to reduce the amount of excavation work required for the canal, and then lower the ships at the other end. After a period of joint American–Panamanian control, the canal was taken over by the Panamanian government in 1999. The US continued to control the canal and surrounding Panama Canal Zone until the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties provided for its handover to Panama. The United States took over the project on May 4, 1904, and opened the canal on August 15, 1914. France began work on the canal in 1881, but stopped because of lack of investors' confidence due to engineering problems and a high worker mortality rate. One of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, the Panama Canal shortcut greatly reduces the time for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, enabling them to avoid the lengthy, hazardous Cape Horn route around the southernmost tip of South America via the Drake Passage or Strait of Magellan.Ĭolombia, France, and later the United States controlled the territory surrounding the canal during construction. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit for maritime trade. The Panama Canal (Spanish: Canal de Panamá) is an artificial 82 km (51 mi) waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The panamax ship MSC Poh Lin exiting the Miraflores locks, March 2013
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